Regarding the question of whether one thousand lives are enough to beat Honkai Impact 3rd.

"So...so cute." The girl peeking from behind the tree exclaimed at Kiana's expression.

"Is something the matter?" Kiana asked the girl hiding behind the tree after swallowing the egg roll completely.

Miyuki Asakura emerged from behind the tree, her pretty face showing a shy and bashful expression. She said, "My name is Miyuki Asakura. Um... yesterday... thank you for saving me."

"This is the hoodie you lent me yesterday." She handed the folded hoodie, which she had been holding behind her back, to Kiana.

"Uh, thanks." Kiana said, taking the hoodie.

"Um... I have a gift for you! As a thank you for saving me yesterday, I'll feel guilty if you don't accept it."

"Let's meet here tonight. I didn't expect to run into you so soon, so I left the gift at home. It's settled then, I'll head back to the classroom now, Kiana."

Having said that, without waiting for Kiana's response, the girl turned around with a bright smile and walked briskly towards the classroom.

Kiana will come.

Because Kiana is very kind.

Miyuki Asakura was so certain.

"Um, Kiana." Two girls from the same class walked over.

"Ok?"

"Don't get too close to Miyuki Asakura, okay? That girl has mental problems," the girl said confidently.

“Yeah, I heard she was involved with shady men at her previous school and in society, and she even…” another girl quickly added.

Kiana initially had no interest in this gossip, but what the two said next made her stop and listen.

"Then she started acting a little strange towards girls."

"Yes, she still really likes to pester the girls at school."

"It's really disgusting." The two couldn't help but show expressions of disgust.

Kiana remained silent, her expression still indifferent.

"So, the senior that Asakura used to harass was one of the victims in the recent disappearances."

"Yeah, and the second-year student too... But recently they found the body, so the missing person case has turned into a serial murder case."

"Wouldn't that make people even less willing to get close to you?"

"In short, that person is a jinx. Although we don't like to talk bad about others behind their backs, it's still safer to stay away from her as much as possible."

A series of murders. Clues flashed through her mind, her intuition gave her a warning, and combined with a hint of something amiss she had noticed earlier, Kiana couldn't help but frown.

"Then we won't disturb Kiana while she has lunch. See you in class!" The two girls waved goodbye to Kiana.

"Okay, goodbye."

Kiana unconsciously tightened her grip on the hoodie; her previous cheerful mood had vanished.

The sky is high and the clouds are light. Birds fly across the sky, and the rushing wind stirs up the maple leaves on the ground. In this autumn that is approaching winter, the bright sunlight seems to be dim and abrupt.

The girl's skirt swayed in the wind as she gazed at the clouds in the sky, her eyes as cold and clear as a frozen spring.

——Divider Line——

"Huh? Kiana, aren't you coming to the shop with me?" Sato Yuno asked, somewhat puzzled. Ever since she met Kiana, the girl had basically only ever been in the coffee shop and rarely went out. The fact that she didn't come back to the shop after school piqued her curiosity.

"Go pick up the package that was sent from Europe. It seems the address was wrong. I was thinking of going to pick it up today," Kiana urged. "You should go home soon. If I'm not there, Su Qing'an might not even bother to open the door. You don't want to make a wasted trip, do you?"

Kiana undoubtedly told the truth.

"What you said makes a lot of sense. I've always wanted to complain about his attitude towards running the store. The store manager was like this half a year ago. Speaking of which, he's only 17 years old, how can he open a store? Is there some strange or evil force behind him?"

Sato Yuno started making sarcastic remarks, but her curiosity was drawn in another direction. Afterwards, she bid farewell to Kiana.

"I'll head home now. See you tomorrow, Kiana, bye-bye (。?ω?。)ノ?。"

"Okay, bye-bye." The girl nodded, watching Sato Yuno's energetic, bouncy figure gradually disappear from sight. A moment later, she also chose to leave the empty classroom.

27. This Hateful World (Part 2)

Kiana stood with her arms crossed, leaning against a street lamp next to a bench.

It was almost seven o'clock in the evening, and the dim space was illuminated only by the light of the streetlights. Even in such a dark and deserted environment, the girl's expression remained calm, as if she had experienced countless things that were darker, more sinister, and more frightening than this.

Therefore, she could calmly face the darkness where no one was, because she had long since comprehended something far deeper than this, and naturally she could remain unmoved.

"Ah, that's wonderful! Kiana really came!" A girl, her face beaming with joy, ran over from the darkness, holding something that looked like a brocade pouch in her hands. "This is a gift for Kiana." Asakura Miyuki was slightly out of breath, her smile radiant.

"This is a sachet called 'Three-Year Cherry Blossom,' which is said to be recorded in the ancient Japanese book 'Konohana Sakuya-hime Zaden.'" The girl held the sachet in both hands as if it were something precious, and recounted its origins in detail.

If a young woman of marriageable age, at the ages of fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen, adorns herself with a cherry blossom from a single tree, the gods will bless her. —From *Miscellaneous Talks of Princess Konohana*

“If a young girl makes a sachet from the petals of the same cherry blossom tree over three years, when she is 14, 15, or 16, then the sacred tree of Mount Fuji, Hanakaya-hime, will bless her love.”

"This is the 'Three-Year Cherry Blossom' that I made over three years. I'm giving it to Kiana now." The girl handed the "Three-Year Cherry Blossom" that she cherished to Kiana, her smile innocent and harmless.

Kiana remained unmoved and did not accept the sachet.

"Did you also give them to those missing girls? But no one accepted you, so you killed them all." Kiana coldly revealed the unbelievable truth, looking at the girl in front of her who appeared as harmless as a forest deer, her eyes filled with complex emotions.

Huh? What is Kiana talking about? How could I...?

This confused thought only flashed through her mind for a moment before Asakura Miyuki suddenly realized the truth.

I've found the reason why I started to break down.

The instinctive, subconscious rejection of thought, at this moment, is like a gear being turned and starting to twist.

Ah, my brain malfunctioned the moment I was rejected.

Why does everyone reject me?

Why does everyone reject me?

Why am I being hurt like this? What did I do wrong?!

What a joke! What a joke! What a joke!

Why, why, why?

Go to hell, go to hell, go to hell.

When she regained consciousness, the girl's beautiful, fair neck had been broken by her own hands.

The girl's body resembled a fallen angel, and Asakura Miyuki, realizing she had killed someone, blushed.

In that instant, the girl, whose life had fallen into an abyss, completely collapsed.

As she recalled everything, the whites of Asakura Miyuki's eyes turned an eerie color, and her lips curled into an exaggerated arc, her smile terrifying.

She looked at Kiana.

Oh, are you going to reject me too? I won't allow it.

She pounced on her, just as she would on a girl she had "loved" before.

Her nails became sharp and long, and the eerie whites of her eyes and the purple patterns appearing on her cheeks made Kiana realize that this girl, whose mind had been twisted by Honkai energy, was already transforming into a suicide fighter.

The process of transforming into a suicide soldier is like having one's soul dragged into the Abyss.

"It's hopeless." She sighed, but her expression was indifferent, as if she were looking at something so commonplace that it had numbed her.

"Click." That was the sound of the safety being turned on.

"Bang." It was the same gunshot as yesterday.

Kiana didn't lie to Yuno Sato; she really did go to pick up the "delivery" first.

The girl fell to the ground, blood gushing out like a pool, a tragic and glaring sight.

They're so weak. They're practically ready to die, yet they can't even withstand a single shot.

This frail, gentle, and kind girl was completely out of place in this world.

"Kiana... I'm sorry..." On the eve of her passing, the soul of Asakura Miyuki was temporarily freed from the collapse and distortion, and that timid, kind and beautiful ordinary girl returned to this broken body.

"And thank you." She placed the three-year-old cherry blossom in Kiana's hand, her smile pure and serene, before closing her eyes forever.

What is she finding solace in? Despite the treatment she suffered, despite being looked at with malice even in her lifetime, despite the fact that those bastards who brought her to this point still haven't let her go.

She was accepting her death, accepting her liberation.

Kiana understood. Until the very end, this girl was so cowardly that it made people laugh, and so gentle that it made people sad.

Even after witnessing countless similar tragedies, I still just can't get used to it.

The girl gently touched her forehead and said, "You're welcome."

"Also, goodnight, Miyuki Asakura."

This world, threatened by collapse, is awful, but for Miyuki Asakura, what truly brought her to this state was this world, or those grotesque humans?

Miyuki Asakura should have had a peaceful and happy ordinary life, but she died here, and even the time before her death was filled with torment.

Why would such a tragedy happen to a 15-year-old girl?

Kiana didn't understand. But she wouldn't stop fighting the Honkai.

From a very early age, her reason for fighting against the Honkai was not simply to study or follow in her father's footsteps.

Years of wandering have shown her what hell on earth is like. The war between humanity and the Honkai is happening all the time. Because of the Honkai infection, parents lose their children, children lose their parents, and wives lose their husbands.

This world is so unreasonable and annoying; there are so many tragedies that she can no longer count them.

But she hated tragedy yet couldn't get used to it, so she had no choice but to change.

One day, Kiana made up her mind long ago.

She wants to change the world into the way she envisions it.

——Divider Line——

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Small cannons exploded the moment Kiana entered, leaving the ground covered with colorful little strips.

"Kiana, happy birthday." She saw the boy holding a gift box, his face beaming.

"Kiana! Happy birthday! You're so slow to come back!" Sato Yuno waved the same gift tube in her hand and said with a grin.

"...How...how did you know it was my birthday today?" The girl was speechless for a moment, and asked somewhat awkwardly.